A Look Through the PORTAL

Software Magazine, Feb, 2001 by Chris Pickering

Business are rapidly adopting e-business portals--utilizing various strategies and portal tools--as a way to provide a single access point and information interface to the company, both inside and outside the firewall.

INFORMATION CAN BE A BLESSING--or a curse. That's one of the lessons of the Information Age. Having the information you need when you need it makes life easier. But sifting through reams of unstructured data when you just want to know one little thing is an exercise in frustration.

This blessing-curse quality of information was manifest in the explosion of the Web. It wasn't long after the Web was up and running that the proliferation of sites caused simple Web searches to return page after page of ostensibly relevant URLs. The value of the Web became diluted by the sheer volume of information available. Some way to organize and manage all that information was necessary to restore its value.

Existing search engines like Yahoo! and Excite stepped up to this challenge and became the first Internet portals. These sites showed the value of a browser-based, single access point for disparate (and often voluminous) information. The convenience of a Web browser, the power of structuring data (through categorization and other means), and the simplicity of collecting various access paths in one common starting point all produced a powerful information-management tool.

The growth of e-business just a few years later created its own information glut. In addition to all the external Web information (that had continued to grow like crazy), there was now an increasing bounty of internal information. Connecting to customers through Web storefronts, and to suppliers through supply-chain management systems, generated that much more information to be included in day-to-day decisions. Faced with the same problem that had plagued the Web--voluminous, disparate information--e-businesses turned to the same solution: portals. Since then portals have become a permanent fixture in the e-business world.

First Information Then Transactions

Among the first uses of an e-business portal was for human resources. Just as the earliest Web-based e-business application--brochureware--was purely a communication function, so, too, HR portals initially served to communicate HR information. The advantage of HR portals, usually hosted on a company's intranet, was to provide employees with a single access point, or "gateway," to all HR information. Once these gateways were established, it was only natural to add to their usefulness by including processing capabilities alongside their pure communication features. Allowing employees to submit benefit requests, manage their personal HR information, and enroll in benefit plans, as well as retrieve information, made these portals complete self-service HR transaction centers.

Portals subsequently used in other areas followed a similar path--first information, then transactions. Portals were no longer simply single access points for information; they were becoming the standard interface for all information activities in an application space. This leap in capability made portals applicable to many more information needs.

Versatile and Evolving

Today, portals play a role in all links in the business chain. For example, Staples.com, Cisco Systems, and Dell Computer Corp. provide qualifying customers with purchasing portals customized for each customer's needs. Ford Motor Company's suppliers check material releases and payment information on Ford's FSN (Ford Supplier Network). HR information at Anheuser-Busch and Wells Fargo & Company is managed through a portal. And e-Steel Exchange uses a portal as the platform for its Web-based steel marketplace.

Clearly, portals are far more versatile than their initial use for data consolidation. Nonetheless, the key behind just about all portal strategies is to use the portal as the single access point for a particular type of information or information processing. Providing a single access point simplifies users' jobs. Once the portal is established, all users know that office-supply procurement, say, or supply-chain data for certain customers, will be found through the portal.

The Customer Interface

The first advantage of using a portal is simplicity, which is often the driving reason behind portal development. Round Rock, Texas-based Dell Computer's Premier Pages grew out of the need to provide customers with a simple, convenient channel for purchasing Dell products.

Most medium to large Dell customers make regular purchases of approved computer configurations and other products. One-off purchases of products not on the approved list are the exception. Obviously, these customers would prefer to see just approved products on their everyday purchasing screens and access the complete product catalog only when making one-off purchases.

This was the original focus of Dell's Premier Pages. Over time, Premier Pages evolved into an increasingly complete electronic customer interface. During this evolution, Dell changed the name to Premier Dell.com (see www.dell.com/premierdemo).